There is by now overwhelming evidence that most of the matter in the Universe interacts significantly with other matter only through gravity; in other words, most of the matter in the Universe is dark matter. Despite its dominance, we currently know very little about its nature. Is it composed of new fundamental particles? If so, what are their properties, and how do they interact with ordinary matter? Or could it perhaps be a new class of macroscopic objects, such as exotic black holes?

Addressing these questions requires an interdisciplinary effort. Theorists must develop new models of dark matter to be tested against existing data and to motivate future searches. At the same time, theoretical insights are crucial for envisioning novel detection strategies. This work must occur within an active and broad experimental program, aimed at exploring different regions of the dark matter "theory space". Finally, indirect observations from cosmology and astrophysics play a vital complementary role, further narrowing down the allowed dark matter properties.

The Physics Department at Sapienza is active in all these areas and has often provided pioneering contributions. Our theorists work on developing dark matter models, proposing new detection methods, and studying the impact of dark matter on astrophysical probes. Meanwhile, our experimentalists are deeply involved in developing new detector technologies, creating new experiments, operating existing facilities, and analyzing the resulting data.
 

Research in Dark Matter

• Theory

• Laboratory Searches

• Cosmology